Small Iowa Town Managing the Snowfall, With Even More on the Way

GILBERT, Iowa -- Gary Steel makes up half of the town of Gilbert's snow removal crew. Despite the lack of manpower, the small town’s streets are clear.

“It's four to six hours to clean the town, depending on the situation,” said Steel.

Steel has been working in city maintenance for over 30 years, so if he sounds a bit nonchalant about probably breaking the February snow record with Tuesday night’s storm, it's because he's seen something similar before…even if it's been a few years.

“Just another day, doesn't really bother me. Ice is what I don't like. It's hard to deal with. People can’t get around, I can’t get around, that’s the tough one,” he said.

Steel says that luckily, most of the businesses are on one side of the street and they can just push the snow to the east side. Others in town are having a little more trouble.

“Just seems like it keeps coming and we're running out of places to pile it so you just kinda go up with it” said Key Co-Op employee Logan Hobbs.

Running a front-end loader, Hobbs is trying his best to keep up with the snowfall, which of course has taken him away from his normal duties.

“Normally I'd be inside doing other stuff, getting things ready for spring. Now we spend a part of the day going out and moving snow and making sure everything's clear so we can keep the grain trailers and the community going,” said Hobbs.

Hobbs says there's nothing he can do to stop the snow from coming, so being frustrated with Mother Nature doesn't do any good.

“It's just something we're going to just keep dealing with, I guess. Don’t have much more of a choice than to keep piling it up and trying to make room for it,” he said.